Gamers Asked to be More Vigilant to Avoid Being Struck by Malware

The gaming industry is gaining traction globally as the newest form of entertainment and East Africa has also not been left behind. (Image Credit: The Guardian Nigeria)

Slovakia-based IT and Security company; ESET early this week on Tuesday begun sending out warning about a new malware dubbed Joao that was discovered by their researchers and is currently targeting gamers.

According to the company, the malware is spreading via computer games published on unofficial websites and is a modular malware capable of downloading and running other malicious code.

“To spread their malware, the attackers behind Joao have misused massively-multiplayer online role-playing games. They modified the games to make them capable of downloading further malware,” explained ESET South Africa CEO, Carey van Vlaanderen.

ESET research has shown that the criminals behind the campaign misused several game titles by Aeria Games and served their modified versions on unofficial websites.

The games laden with Joao were able to gather information about the infected computer and then download additional components offered by the Command&Control server. The Joao components ESET researchers discovered during their research had a backdoor, spying, and DDoS capabilities.

“The infection process is well hidden from the victims and these modified games work as expected. Once a game-hungry user jumps into downloading the modified game, there is nothing to raise their suspicion. Those who are not protected with a reliable security solution simply end up with their computers infected,” warns van Vlaanderen.

ESET security experts have compiled a set of recommendations to help gamers enjoy gaming without being faced with threats: